Christopher Nuttall

Reginald, now King, is struggling against the rising tide of the Old God entities. He knows that his army alone cannot defeat them, even with cold iron that can contain them and free enslaved humans. But as cities burn and farmland is devastated, the people have been easily convinced by cultists to turn to the Old Gods. In a neighbouring kingdom the weak young ruler, fallen prey to an entity that promised him the world, starts his campaign to fulfil that promise, adding to the threats heading towards Andalusia. Reginald’s best hope is that Isabella, his sorceress Queen, and Princess Silverdale, his talented sister, can learn enough about the entities and their relationship with the human realm to find a magical way to defeat them. But, as time is running out, shattering news arrives from the Golden City…

After the campaign in the Summer Isle, Isabella rides out the winter storms by studying the godly magic under Mother Lembu, in the process learning about the origins of the old gods. Crown Prince Reginald receives word that his father the King is ill and his sister Princess Sofia, acting as regent, is imposing a regime that is strangely similar to what had been happening on the Summer Isle – nobles killed, temples smashed, enforced public worship of old gods. Concerned that his family, and indeed his homeland, are in danger, Reginald is determined to return home. But the storms are still raging with what appears to be unnatural force, making any attempt to return to Andalusia too risky for the Prince and his men.… unless Isabella can somehow use the new rituals she has learnt to placate the powers behind the storms and navigate the fleet safely home to face whatever has taken control of the kingdom.

Humanity has won a great victory, shattering the alien fleet that would have destroyed the Solar Union and exterminated the human race. But the war is not yet over. The Tokomak still have a huge fleet and an immense industrial base, large enough to crush the human race once and for all if they have time to bring it into action. The war may still be lost.There is only one way to win. Admiral Hoshiko Stuart and her fleet must take the war deep into enemy territory, to the very heart of the Tokomak Empire. But with the Tokomak gathering their forces and rallying their allies for one final battle, the outcome still hangs in the balance ...... And whoever wins will dominate the galaxy for thousands of years to come.

An all-new story of The Empire's Corps Earth has fallen. The Core Worlds have collapsed into chaos. War is breaking out everywhere as planetary governments declare independence, entire sectors slip out of contact and warlords battle for power. The remnants of the once-great Empire are tearing themselves apart.In the shadows, the Terran Marine Corps works to save what little they can to preserve civilisation and build a better tomorrow. But powerful factions are competing with them, determined to establish their own order. If they cannot be stopped, if the marines cannot hold the line, the galaxy will fall into a new dark age. And there may only be one chance to nip their scheme in the bud.Does fortune favour the bold? The marines are about to find out.

Six years ago, in the aftermath of the House War that nearly tore Shallot apart, Akin Rub n and Caitlyn Aguirre were betrothed in a bid to keep their rival families from returning to war. Now, with both of them on the brink of maturity, that marriage is starting to loom. The moment of choice, when they must decide to go through with the wedding or risk their families resuming their rivalry, is fast approaching.And yet, all is not well in House Rub n. Akin, the presumed Heir Primus, has many enemies, relatives who will do anything rather than see him succeed his father and link their families to their former rivals. Powerful factions are gathering, ready to oppose the match by any means necessary. Secrets from the past are being dug up and turned into weapons, just waiting to be launched. In desperation, Lord Rub n - Akin's father - forces his son to enter the Challenge - a contest that will either prove his right to inherit or utterly destroy him.But the Challenge is not quite what it seems ...

The war is on the verge of being lost.The alien virus has begun its offensive, punching through the human defences and sending advance elements to threaten Earth itself. HMS Invincible and her crew, having barely returned from their last mission, are thrown into a desperate mission to strengthen the inner line of defences before the virus can smash them too and destroy the human race. The stakes have never been so high. Defeat means the end of everything.But when the virus continues its offensive, brushing through all opposition, Invincible must mount a desperate raid deep into enemy space to win time for the human race ...... Or watch, helplessly, as humanity faces a fate worse than death ...

They say democracy dies in darkness ...Earth has fallen. The Empire is no more. Old certainties are collapsing everywhere. Chaos is spreading across the stars, with war following in its wake ...Tarsus, a world too close to Earth for comfort, is far from immune.Clarence Esperanza, a reporter on Tarsus, thought he had the story of the century. But, when he took the story to his bosses, he was unceremoniously fired. Cut off from his former friends, abandoned by his wife isolated from the world around him, he thought all he could do was stagger onto the streets and wait to die. But when an old friend offers him a job, with a new news outlet challenging the dominance of the planetary media networks, he finds himself on the front lines of a struggle for control of the planet ...... And fighting for the freedom of an entire world.

In The Unwritten Words, Christopher Nuttall’s story-telling mastery weaves a new epic which follows on from his bestselling Bookworm series and is set in that same world. In The Promised Lie, the first book of the new series, five years have passed since the earth-shattering events of Bookworm IV. The Golden City has fallen. The Grand Sorcerer and Court Wizards are dead. The Empire they ruled is nothing more than a memory, a golden age lost in the civil wars as kings and princes battle for supremacy. And only a handful of trained magicians remain alive. Isabella Majuro, Lady Sorceress, is little more than a mercenary, fighting for money in a desperate bid to escape her past. But when Prince Reginald of Andalusia plots the invasion of the Summer Isle, Isabella finds herself dragged into a war against strange magics from before recorded history ... ... And an ancient mystery that may spell the end of the human race. Praise for the award-winning Bookworm series: Bookworm was winner of the GOLD Award in the Adult Fiction category of the 2013 Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards. “A thrilling adventure packed full of magic and memorable characters. Highly recommended.” – The Wishing Shelf Awards “one of the best authors of entertaining epic fantasy” – Seregil of Rhiminee “the author has woven an exciting and entertaining story of secrets, dark history, books, werewolves and magic, and knows how to keep the story on the move” – Risingshadow

A new Emperor has arisen ...and the Empire is collapsing into chaos. Having escaped from the Golden City, Elaine, Johan and their friends - including some strange allies with goals of their own - race desperately towards Ida, hiding place of the ancient Witch-King. Behind them, the armies of the new Emperor - a man permanently poised on the verge of madness - give chase, unleashing monsters and spells from the long-buried past on everyone who stands in their way. Ahead of them, the Witch-King waits, biding his time as he prepares for his ascension. As they endure terrible dangers - and figures from the past - Elaine and Johan come to realise that Elaine's knowledge of magic and the bond between them may be the only thing standing between the Witch-King and godhood. But if they cannot prepare a defence in time, the entire world will die when the Witch-King rises from his tomb ...The fourth and final instalment in the Bookworm series, Full Circle follows on from the events in The Best Laid Plans, with Elaine and her friends heading for Ida to confront the Witch-King.

Elaine and Johan are preparing to leave Golden City, with Daria and the travellers, in order to search for the Witch-King. The Grand Sorceress instructs Inquisitor Cass to help them. But before Elaine can leave she is arrested by two Inquisitors on the orders of the Emperor. When she resists she is hit with a powerful spell that forces her to concentrate all her efforts on protecting her mind from its intrusion. Taken to the palace she finds that the Grand Sorceress has been removed and the Throne has accepted an heir to the Empire. Realising this has to be the work of the Witch-King, Elaine must defeat the spell that is eating away at her defences if she is to escape and destroy him. Meanwhile, Johan, Daria and Cass are trying to find a way to get to Elaine and break her out of the cell in which she is being held. The Golden City is still widely devastated from the disastrous battle for power that followed the death of the previous Grand Sorcerer. The recent escalating breakdown of social order can only be made worse by the return of an Emperor and the imposition of martial law. The Privy Councillors and Heads of the Great Houses succumb to the power of the new Emperor, as he amasses a huge army. It is up to Elaine and her friends, with some unexpected help, to prevent an all-out war. The third instalment in the Bookworm series, The Best Laid Plans follows on immediately from the events in The Very Ugly Duckling, with Elaine and Johan joined by other favourite characters as they try to track down the Witch-King.

Not every ugly duckling becomes a swan ...In the wake of the disastrous attack on the Golden City, Lady Light Spinner has become Grand Sorceress and Elaine, the Bookworm, has been settling into her positions as Head Librarian and Privy Councillor. But any hope of vanishing into her books is negated when a new magician of staggering power appears, one whose abilities seem to defy the known laws of magic. Johan is a Powerless, a person born to a magical family yet lacking powers of his own. His dreams of a better life are curbed by his family, who see him as a cripple at best and a burden at worst. But when a political protest goes horrifically wrong, Johan discovers that his true powers have merely been buried, waiting for their chance to explode into the world. As he comes to grips with his newfound talents, he realises that he finally has a chance to realise his ambitions. But for the Golden City, reeling after the devastation of six months before, he may be the greatest threat the city has ever seen. Elaine must unlock the mystery behind his powers, before the political factions can kill him ...or use him to unleash a nightmare. Returning to well-loved characters and introducing new ones, Bookworm II: The Very Ugly Duckling explores power - and the effect it has on the human mind.

A multi-planetary post-singularity society (the Confederation) desperately wants to know how to achieve transcendence into an Elder Race. Their scouts encounter Darius, a lost colony world whose inhabitants have apparently discarded the technology that brought them to the planet, in order to adopt a virtually feudal culture. But the scouts are shocked when they discover that the controlling elite, in each of the major centres of population, exhibit abilities that defy the accepted laws of physics. Although the population appear to believe their leaders to be capable of performing sorcery, the Confederation concludes they must in fact be using a technology sufficiently advanced to seem like magic. Is it a technology left behind by long-gone Elders, or an indication of an advanced race trying to control the colony - perhaps one of a number of such races who are intent on meddling in human affairs? Either way, the need to understand and utilise such a technology leads the Confederation Security Council to launch an urgent mission to investigate Darius. Suitable specialists are swiftly enlisted to create a team, including both scientists and AIs, but all under military control. Protocol dictates that stealthy infiltration should precede initial contact, but the lack of sufficient prior observation and analysis will make it harder for the team to establish a credible cover story. Although their ship can remain in a hidden orbit, the research team will be on their own once they land, especially as Confederation technology seems to be unreliable or even inoperative on the planet's surface. But they will soon discover that the people on Darius are not all the simple folk that they seem.

Elaine is an orphan girl who has grown up in a world where magical ability brings power. Her limited talent was enough to ensure a magical training but she's very inexperienced and was lucky to get a position working in the Great Library. Now, the Grand Sorcerer - the most powerful magician of them all - is dying, although initially that makes little difference to Elaine; she certainly doesn't have the power to compete for higher status in the Golden City. But all that changes when she triggers a magical trap and ends up with all the knowledge from the Great Library - including forbidden magic that no one is supposed to know - stuffed inside her head. This unwanted gift doesn't give her greater power, but it does give her a better understanding of magic, allowing her to accomplish far more than ever before. It's also terribly dangerous. If the senior wizards find out what has happened to her, they will almost certainly have her killed. The knowledge locked away in the Great Library was meant to remain permanently sealed and letting it out could mean a repeat of the catastrophic Necromantic Wars of five hundred years earlier. Elaine is forced to struggle with the terrors and temptations represented by her newfound knowledge, all the while trying to stay out of sight of those she fears, embodied by the sinister Inquisitor Dread. But a darkly powerful figure has been drawing up a plan to take the power of the Grand Sorcerer for himself; and Elaine, unknowingly, is vital to his scheme. Unless she can unlock the mysteries behind her new knowledge, divine the unfolding plan, and discover the truth about her own origins, there is no hope for those she loves, the Golden City or her entire world.